According to data published by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, over the past 35 years, global warming has occurred, however, the warmest years on record have taken place since 2010.
Since the late 19th century, the planet’s average surface temperature has risen around 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius).
Unfortunately, the oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters of the ocean showing warming of more than 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969 and global sea level has risen about 8 inches in the last century.
Some of the top contributors to climate change and global warming are water management, greenhouse gases, transportation and production of goods.
Nonetheless, the worldwide research and innovation community has united to focus on these areas to provide technologies and applications to efficiently handle each of the top contributors.
As a result, so far, 38,000 global warming patents have been filed worldwide.
Japan is currently the global leader in mitigating climate change, as a country, they have filed 15,903 patents in terms of research and providing technological advancements to combat climate change.
Other countries are also driving the research activity under climate change, these include China (11,877 patents), Korea (9,108), and the United States (8,561).
The patent data set revealed that global companies and universities are primarily focusing their research activity on greenhouse gas emissions, but solar energy, fuel cell, electric power and batteries are also areas under observation.
The high rise in patent filing activity in recent years is showing promising signs in handling the climate change problem; since 2001, the patent activity has increased by 200 per cent.
This increase in filings demonstrates the significant and increasing activity in this area but also the faith that innovators have in the patent system to provide protection for their ideas to allow them to recoup the costs of R&D whilst sharing the details of their ideas with the world at large.